1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to computer systems and in particular to storage systems associated with computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems typically comprise a central processing unit, a memory subsystem and a storage subsystem. Networked computer systems associate a storage subsystem with a local computer system. The local computer system may include a number of independent storage devices or disks housed in a single system. The storage devices and associated computer system(s) are typically connected to several computers (or hosts) via dedicated cabling or via a network. However, a problem exists when operating systems, such as Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX), use excessive time and power to retrieve information from storage devices. For example, AIX queries every disk presented to a host in order to retrieve information and/or attributes of interest. Current methods for searching for attributes that are on a disk involve serially searching devices on a bus and querying every visible disk in search of the attributes when the attributes are stored on one of multiple disks.